Unit 12 Differences between L1 and L2 learning

Importance in L1

First of all we have to take into account the age, the acquisition of the language here starst when we are babies and continues through our lives, even in school when we develop writings such as academic writings where we start developing some language skills. Also when we are babies we acquire the language at the same time as we learn the cognitive ones; we are motivated to learn the language to communicate as well. We acquire that language by picking it up and we lots of exposure. by reading, listening and interacting with the family or friends, also by perceiving the world around us. 

How to teach

In this case the first job is for parents to expose their children to the language and in the case of academic and other types of writing teachers must introduce examples of those writings and then make students practice.

Importance in L2

It starts in primary school while we are developing other skills and we are kind of motivated to learn that language but in adults it is different since they have more expectations about the language so as mentioned before we need more motivation or reasons in order to learn the language and more exposure since it is harder for them in that phase because they have already developed their cognitive skills. As adults we need to be taught specific vocabulary and grammar, we need to interact with each other, practice a lot, make self-correction, we need encouragement and we need to experiment with the language.

How to teach

In this case teachers will need to bring realia, authentic material and interactive activities for students to first be motivated and give them enough examples and exposure to the language so students will understand and learn the language in many of the cases wihtout awareness. In additioin, in this process students will need a lot of interaction since they are leraning the language in order to communicate.

References:

Homepage.ntlworld.com, (2014). L1 and L2 learning by Vivian Cook, John Long and Steve McDonough. [online] Available at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/Writings/Papers/L1&L21979.htm [Accessed 4 Dec. 2014].

Homepage.ntlworld.com,. (2014). Comparing First and Second Language Acquisition by Vivian Cook. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/L1%2